this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
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Why use a third-party at all? It's been trivial to send money via bank transfer for a long time, check your banking app or website and you'll likely find a way to send money with just an account number + sort code. If your country has a system like faster payments the transfer will be near-instant too.
"bank transfer"
Laughs in US.
America has Zelle which does instant money transfers by email/phone. It's private but it works in my banking app, is totally free, and is instant
Zelle is a private company and not "America" wide. Your bank has to support it.
Otherwise, youre stuck in the paypal/venmo/cashapp loop with the rest of us.
Yay for private interests lobbying our government!
Banks are proprietary software
Okay? But you presumably do still have an account with a bank or building society, right? So why use a third party when you can request a transfer from them directly?
Ironically enough it's the opposite. Banks answer to shareholders, building societies answer to its members. Building societies compete with banks, if they're unheard of in the US that certainly does explain the state of the US banking system.
We don't have building societies in the US, but we do have similar institutions called credit unions.
Not in America! Every bank transfer is a series of hoops that is a pain to jump through which take days to update.
You don't have some system like IBAN allowing you to just send money to whichever bank you want within ome or two days (or in real time but with a fucking fee but that's about to change)?
Not a universal one, no. But there is one that a lot of banks use called Zelle.
Truly, capitalism breeds innovation™